In Free Societies I think we believe there's large social benefit to fairness and freedom. This includes access to enfranchisement in that society. And a place to live, a place to work, etc. are elements of that. Hence, in the US, there are Civil Rights laws that make certain discrimination against people on the basis of race, religion, and gender illegal -- all added in the 20th century after struggles.
I agree with personal choice; for example, I disagree with forcing a woman to wear a headscarf and I disagree with attempts to force a woman not to be able to wear a headscarf -- like some French schools tried to do. No one forces them to rent out their places. But if they want to engage in what is essentially commerce, for the greater societal welfare it needs to be governed by fair rules as much as stock transactions should bar insider information. For example, there is a list of information that a realtor cannot provide a buyer in the US as its considered discriminatory: http://law.freeadvice.com/government_law/civil_rights_law_ada/housing_protections.htm That said, there's plenty hidden discrimination -- people who don't want to rent to college kids fearing destructive parties. Condo communities that don't allow children because it annoys the old folks. Fat people are often discriminated against in the workplace. Sometimes it can be hard to prove. As much as a huge liability the litigious nature of the US is, sometimes it does end up scaring people into doing the ethical thing, simply to avoid punishment. But on a personal note, a vegetarian Hindu in India (mind you, that's what my Indian side of the family has been for generations), who walks around thinking themselves morally superior to a Swede who eats meat just makes me laugh. In Sweden there is no such idea as a person being a "dalit." There are no slums. Everyone can go to school. It is illegal to discriminate against people based on color (they even have dark skinned women on TV, which I almost never see here in India!), religion, race, gender, etc. There is no eve-teasing, no police torture (and the police enforce the law), no dowrys, no honor killing, very little violence and crime, you can cross the street without cars trying to run you down, etc. When India starts taking care of the human beings here, I'll stop eating meat. Priorities, please! Two final points -- the US has plenty of poverty, corruption, and violence (not to mention the reported torture in Gitmo)-- which many Americans find shameful (and I also laugh at Americans who think we're the best because we've got claim to so many superlatives, rather than contemplating rating us on the life of the average person or plight of those least fortunate). And second, there are *many* progressive and humanist Indians I've met who want to change things for the better here (and things have been getting better here in so many ways) -- the population is diverse here and I'm only talking about that segment that acts in these intolerant ways. The conflict between the "intolerati" (some of whom wouldn't want to rent to an Indian because they don't want that "damned curry smell" in their rental unit -- fortunately that's illegal for them to do -- and some of whom would want all Muslims in the US rounded up and put in camps, which again, is completely unconstitutional and would never be done -- especially after the shame of the Japanese internment during WWII) and the rest of Americans is one of the reasons for the major regime change in 2008. Because, to quote Michael Caine's character from the Austin Powers movie, "There are two things I can't stand: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch!" :-) On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 3:29 PM, Zainab Bawa <bawazaina...@gmail.com> wrote: > It is problematic when vegetarianism is imposed on my by force, in both > subtle and not-so-subtle ways. That I am viewed as lowly, meat eating > person, simply because some cultures believe that it is more moral and > superior to eat vegetarian food. There are personal choices, social > choices, > ecological choices for eating vegetables over meat. That is fine as long as > it is not imposed on me. There is a fundamental issue of freedom at stake > here.
